2012 State of the Sport – Part IV: Largest Road Races

Top 100 largest timed U.S. road races include 42 half-marathons; for the first time, top 100 exceeds 1.6 million finishers and 5 road races had more than 40,000 timed finishers

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – (September 30, 2012) – As part of its mission to promote andcelebrate the sport, Running USA annually releases statistics for the nation’s top road races including such popular lists as the Top 100 U.S. Timed, Largest by Distance, Largest by State, Largest Festivals, Women-Only, World’s Largest and Youth Runs. Below is a summary of each category.

Top 100 U.S. Timed – In 2011, the Top 100 U.S. Timed list accounted for more than 1.6 million finishers (an all-time high) compared to 922,500 finishers in 2000, a 75% increase. In 2000 the 100thrace on the U.S. list had more than 3,600 finishers and by 2011 that number had grown to more than 8,000. Last year, half-marathons accounted for 42% of the races listed in the Top 100, with 15 of these being represented by Competitor Group’s popular Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series. As mentioned in previous State of the Sport Reports, since 2003, the half-marathon has been the fastest growing distance in the U.S., with women leading the charge. See Table 1 below.

Also, for the first time in the same year, there were 5 U.S. road races with more than 40,000 timed finishers - Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race 10K, Lilac Bloomsday Run 12K, Dick’s Sporting Goods BolderBOULDER 10K, ING New York City Marathon and Zazzle Bay to Breakers 12K plus a record 11 U.S. road races with more than 30,000 timed finishers.

Table 1: Top 100 U.S. Timed Road Races (2000 vs. 2011)

2000

2011

Events

Finishers

Events

Finishers

5K

25

244,391

9

101,700

10K

15

113,649

9

237,946

Half-Marathon

10

63,736

42

563,293

Marathon

18

204,322

11

215,950

OVERALL TOP 100 TOTAL

100

922,500

100

1,611,599

Largest by Distance – Table 2 lists the U.S. largest races by distance in 2011. For a complete list of rankings by distance, go to: www.runningusa.org/largest-races

Marathon47,133ING New York City Marathon (New York, NY) – largest ever

Ultra864JFK 50 Mile Trail (Boonsboro, MD)

Relay14,616Beach to Bay Relay Marathon (Corpus Christi, TX)

Largest by State – The Race for the Cure: St. Louis Festival ranks Missouri as #1 on the map for largest festival event. Below is a list of the Top 10 states who had either the largest stand-alone or the largest festival events reported in 2011.

Table 3: Top 10 Festival Largest by State (2011)

Missouri55,393 ERace for the Cure: St. Louis Festival

Georgia55,077Atlanta-Journal Constitution Peachtree Festival

New York53,020ING New York City Marathon Festival

Washington51,303Lilac Bloomsday 12K

Colorado49,213Dick’s Sporting Goods BolderBOULDER 10K

California43,954Zazzle Bay to Breakers 12K

Florida43,856Walt Disney World Marathon Festival

Ohio42,633 ERace for the Cure: Columbus Festival

Minnesota42,500 ERace for the Cure: Twin Cities Festival

Arkansas39,100 ERace for the Cure: Little Rock Festival

E = estimate not all finishers timed

Largest Festivals – Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure events include 8 races in the top 20 festivals for 2011. Festivals continue to experience tremendous growth during the Second Running Boom. In 2009, the Top 50 festivals included approximately 1.5 million finishers, whereas by 2011, the number had increased to 1.6 million.

Women-Only – As reported in previous State of the Sport Reports, females now account for 7.6 million finishers nationwide (a record number) and represent the highest event field percentage ever reported of 55%. Of the largest women-only races (95% or greater female finishers), six of the top 15 were half-marathons in 2011, with the Nike Women’s and Disney’s Princess Half-Marathons dominating spots #1 and #2, respectively.

World’s Largest – With 68,929 timed finishers in 2011, the Sun-Herald City2Surf 14K in Sydney, Australia was again the world’s largest road race. For the second time (also 2010), six marathons – New York City, Chicago, London, Berlin, Tokyo and Paris – had more than 30,000 finishers in the same year.

Also for the first time, there were four half-marathons worldwide that had more than 30,000 finishers (Göteborg, Bupa Great North Run, Zappos.com Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas and OneAmerica 500 Festival) plus a record eight half-marathons worldwide with more than 20,000 finishers, and last year, based on finishers, the United States had 14 of the top 20 half-marathons in the world.

Largest Youth – With the development of the final mile programs and the majority of road race events now incorporating a youth component, youth runs across the nation continue to experience growth. While many youth events continue to be untimed fun runs, making tracking of these events difficult, Running USA estimates that there were more than 35 youth events in 2011 that surpassed 2,000 youth finishers at a single event.

Running USA = Running USA advances the growth and success of the running industry. State of the Sport reports, many types of running data and lists of the largest races from past years can be found on RunningUSA.org in the “Statistics” section. Running USA statistics are powered by Athlinks.